Web meeting talks brushes on the combat mechanics of Spellborn

Web meeting talks brushes on the combat mechanics of Spellborn
By Michael Lafferty

Game will bring unique elements to the MMO space

The Chronicles of
Spellborn, a fantasy-based massively multiplayer online title, is moving through
closed beta toward the open beta, so the folks at Acclaim though it might be a
good time to host a Webinar meeting with some of the principles involved in the
development and release of the game.

Howard Marks (Acclaim
CEO), David Perry (Acclaim CCO), Matthew Florianz (Spellborn Sound Designer),
and El Drijver (Spellborn Lead Game Designer) tackled some of the aspects of the
combat system within Spellborn – a system that is rather unlike anything
currently in the MMO gaming space. What makes this system unique? Many things,
actually, that begin with the fact that there is no auto-lock for targeting. You
are a free-floating targeting system and actually have to train the targeting
reticule on the target and manually maintain that in order to effectively attack
that target.

And that’s just the
beginning of this combat system. The environment plays a tactical role in how
combat plays out.

“This is not a game where
you sit back and type the right key,” Perry stated.

Because there is no “fire
lock” in the game “a lot of the skill is based on your position in the world and
how you move, one of the Spellborn designers noted. And individual world objects
play a role. For example, if a ranged attack launches an assault and your
character sees it in time and ducks behind a tree, the collision-detection
system effectively allows that tree to block the attack.

“The strategic placement
in the world plays a role in the combat,” it was stated.

Acclaim plans to open the
game with one PvP (player-versus-player) and one PvE (player-versus-environment)
server. As one can imagine, combat is at the heart of the game, but this is not
a game where you sit back and punch buttons randomly. Players will be forced to
think about what they are doing, where they are in the world and what skills
they are using.

“If you are using the
wrong skills at the wrong times, you can work against yourself,” Drijver said.

One of the panel members
asked what about expanding classes and Drijver was quick to note that “We look
to expand the classes we have rather than add new classes. What we did is tie a
style to the classes.” For example, if you want to be brutal and melee, you pick
a warrior. The dev team is looking to use the existing archetypes and
disciplines and expand on that. “This is what we are working on for now and long
term,” he said.

So why choose manual aim
rather than auto aim. It was explained that it goes back to the origins of the
game, and how players could – in other game arenas – influence dice rolls. The
development team wanted to stay away from that. “We wanted it to be if you can
swing your sword and hit something, you should be good; if you can dodge you
shouldn’t be hit.

“It’s really a unique
system how it became. It makes the game pretty intense.

“We didn’t want dice
rolling. Another thing we didn’t like was root, polymorph or something that
incapacitates the player. We don’t have any of these complete-block mechanics in
the game.”

The game does have a PvP
element to it but, as Drijver said, “The game is currently live without many PvP
objectives and goals and we are working on that.” One of the upcoming things is
arena battle for players to fight randomly and to register teams. There will be
awards – and that is one of the elements the dev team looking to add in the next
patch.

Another element that will
be coming along involve demon chests tied to the eight demons. The chests are,
thus far, cloaked in mystery with the onus on the players to find out where they
are and how to find the rare keys that will open them (three will be needed per
chest). Adding an interesting element is that the chests will be located in PvP
areas and players can be attacked while trying to open the chests. It was stated
that if a player carrying a key is attacked by another player and defeated, that
key will switch from the inventory of the defeated player to the inventory of
the victorious one. “The chests are persistent. They will have a couple of
locks, three – most of them will have three – and anybody can open a lock if
they have the key to it. If all three locks are off anyone can open the chest.”

What is unique about
Spellborn that allows players to approach things in a different manner and still
be competitive?

Drijver explained that
“The system is so free and so complex. It’s how good the player is.” Thus far
there does not seem to be a template for each class and “players have not found
the best setup yet. We have the skills that are very diverse. The customization
is very deep and is very wide (sigils help customize the weapons and armor).”

Will the cover system
favor melee classes as opposed to caster classes?

“Not really,” Drijver
said. “If you take Matthew’s favorite class, the rune mage, you put a flame
circle around the tree and they will be burning no matter what way they run. So
far we have not had any problems” (with the classes) and environmental strategic
elements.

It was pointed out that
all the skills are themed with classes so players will always fight with a
certain style. And everyone starts with the same three skills – “it’s a pretty
sophisticated system” – and it builds up from there, starting at about level 10
and continuing to add depth through level 30.

The last question asked
about improvements to the guild system and what was coming to make this a deeper
experience. It was here that the dev members were a bit elusive, only saying
that “guilds are very important for us – guilds and high houses. We want to make
the guilds and high houses community tools and working entities. The tools for
the guilds will definitely be expanded. We are not going to focus for now on an
in-game guild forum when in the future we have a feature that makes it
obsolete.”